Source: http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1786/who-are-nonvoters-less-republican-educated-younger

As is typical in U.S. elections, nonvoters are significantly younger, less educated and less affluent than are likely voters.

Nearly three-quarters of nonvoters (72%) are younger than age 50, compared with only 42% of likely voters.

Similarly, a majority of nonvoters (60%) have not gone beyond high school, compared with just 34% among those likely to vote.

This education gap is somewhat larger among young people: 55% of nonvoters younger than age 40 have only a high school education, while the figure among young likely voters is just 20%.

Low education levels and low incomes go hand-in-hand: 43% of nonvoters have family incomes under $30,000, compared with just 19% among likely voters.

Reflecting their low incomes, many more nonvoters (31%) than likely voters (14%) describe their personal financial situation as poor, and fully 51% of nonvoters say that they or someone in their household was out of work and looking for a job at some point in the past 12 months. Among voters, 36% had this personal experience with unemployment.

A much higher proportion of nonvoters than voters identify as Hispanic or Latino: 21% of nonvoters vs. 6% of voters.

Part of this difference, of course, reflects the fact that nearly four-in-ten (37%) Latinos in the U.S. are not citizens and thus not eligible to vote.

...

Nonvoting does not appear to be a byproduct of contentment with the political system.

Somewhat more nonvoters than voters say they are basically content with the federal government (25% among nonvoters, 16% among likely voters), but this is a decidedly minority view.

Fully half of nonvoters are frustrated with government and 19% say they are angry.

Similarly, most nonvoters (73%) say they can trust the government in Washington to do what’s right only some of the time, or never. This is about the same level of distrust expressed by voters (76%).

Source: http://elections.gmu.edu/voter_turnout.htm

Voter turnout rates presented here show that the much-lamented decline in voter participation is an artifact of poor measurement. Previously, turnout rates were calculated by dividing the number of votes by what is called the “voting-age population” which consists of everyone age 18 and older residing in the United States (the yellow line to the right). This includes persons ineligible to vote, mainly non-citizens and ineligible felons, and excludes overseas eligible voters. When turnout rates are calculated for those eligible to vote, a new picture of turnout emerges, which exhibits no decline since 1972 (the green line to the right). Indeed, turnout rates appear to have been restored to their earlier high levels as of 2008.

Source: Rasmussen

The Declaration of Independence famously proclaims that governments derive “their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

If so, the U.S. government may well have lost its claim to those “just powers.”

On August 1 and 2, pollsters Rasmussen Reports asked 1,000 likely voters this question:

“The Declaration of Independence says that governments derive their authority from the consent of the governed. Does the federal government today have the consent of the governed?”

Reports Rasmussen: “[J]ust 17% of likely U.S. voters think the federal government today has the consent of the governed. Sixty-nine percent (69%) believe the government does not have that consent. Fourteen percent (14%) are undecided.”

That’s the lowest level Rasmussen’s ever found when asking this question – and a steep drop from 23% as recently as May.

Rasmussen also finds:

* Only 8% of likely voters think Congress is doing a good or excellent job. Fifty-two percent (52%) rate Congress’ performance as poor.

* Only 8% of likely voters believe the average member of Congress listens to his or her constituents more than to their party leaders.

* In June, voters were asked if most members of Congress are corrupt. They are divided almost evenly: 39% say yes; 38% say no, while 23% are undecided.

In his 2010 book In Search of Self-Governance, pollster Scott Rasmussen observes that the American people are “united in the belief that our political system is broken, that politicians are corrupt and that neither major political party has the answers.” He adds that “the gap between Americans who want to govern themselves and the politicians who want to rule over them may be as big today as the gap between the colonies and England during the 18th century.”

The Declaration of Independence follows the phrase about “consent of the governed” with these words: “whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it...”

Source: http://www.truth-out.org/goodbye-all-reflections-gop-operative-who-left-cult/1314907779

The whole article is quite excellent brainfood but I include it here because of this particular chunk:

The United States has nearly the lowest voter participation among Western democracies; this, again, is a consequence of the decline of trust in government institutions - if government is a racket and both parties are the same, why vote? And if the uninvolved middle declines to vote, it increases the electoral clout of a minority that is constantly being whipped into a lather by three hours daily of Rush Limbaugh or Fox News. There were only 44 million Republican voters in the 2010 mid-term elections, but they effectively canceled the political results of the election of President Obama by 69 million voters.

Census Data on Voting/Registration: http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/socdemo/voting/index.html

Shifting Demographics: http://www.newgeography.com/content/001829-shifting-voter-demographics-america-a-different-country

In 1965 the nation was 89% white and 11% black, about the same as it had been during the previous century. Since then, high levels of Asian and Latin immigration have produced an America today which is 66% white and 33% “people of color,” a tripling of the minority population in only four decades. Remarkably, 10% of Americans are of Mexican descent and about 5% of the electorate speaks primarily Spanish. For the first time in US history a president of mixed race, although one who considers himself to be African-American, resides in the White House.

The second big demographic change is the emergence of the largest, most diverse generation in American history: the Millenials. Like it or not, this generation will dominate the political and cultural life of 21st century America as much as the Boomers did in the late 20th century. The Millennial Generation, born from 1982-2003, is sometimes condescendingly referred to as the “youth vote,” but it should be more accurately recognized as the biggest and most important new voting cohort in America. There are about 95 million Millennials, about half of whom are now of voting age. One out of four eligible voters in 2012 will come from this generation. That will expand to more than one out of three voters by 2020.

This is the fundamental driver of American political change: Every two years the percentage of non-whites and Millennials increases, a trend likely to continue in the decades ahead. Non-whites will grow from 33% of the population today to as much 50% by 2042. There will also be a rapid increase in the “mixed race” population, which might further complicate matters.

....

These demographic transformations are changing the political loyalties and beliefs of the American electorate. Democrats now have their largest lead in national party identification since the early 1960s. In the most recent Pew survey, only 15% of Americans claimed to be completely unaffiliated independent voters, while about half (48%) identify with the Democratic Party and 37% with the Republican Party. By contrast, in 1994, the last time in which a newly elected Democratic president faced a midterm election against an aroused GOP, the two parties were tied in party identification at 44% each. This Democratic advantage is due in large part to Millennials and Hispanics who identify as Democrats by a 2:1 margin over Republicans.

More recently, only 29% of those surveyed this fall told Pew they wanted all of the Bush-era tax cuts to remain in place, while a majority (57%) preferred either that those on the wealthy should be allowed to expire or that all of the Bush tax cuts should end. Forty percent of adults told an Associated Press survey they didn’t think the new health care law went far enough, while only 20% felt the federal government shouldn’t be involved in healthcare at all. These pro-government attitudes are likely to grow as more and more Millennials enter the electorate. By a 60% to 36% margin the generation favors a bigger government providing more services over a smaller government providing fewer services.

Always a pleasant surprise when Wikipedia turns up a solid page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_turnout

After increasing for many decades, there has been a trend of decreasing voter turnout in most established democracies since the 1960s. In general, low turnout may be due to disenchantment, indifference, or contentment. Low turnout is often considered to be undesirable, and there is much debate over the factors that affect turnout and how to increase it. In spite of significant study into the issue, scholars are divided on reasons for the decline. Its cause has been attributed to a wide array of economic, demographic, cultural, technological, and institutional factors.

LULZ!

“ain’t nobody know shit but we’ve published a lot!”